CBSE CLASS 10 - ENGLISH (C) - FROG AND THE NIGHTINGALE - POEM SUMMARY (#cbsenotes)(#eduvictors)

FROG AND THE NIGHTINGALE

POEM SUMMARY 

Poet: Vikram Seth (written in 1994)

ABOUT THE POEM

Here is a very witty and highly satiric poem based on a very simple parable. The meaning of the poem is very simple seen through symbols. A simple-hearted, sweet-tongued, low abiding and innocuous bird in the nightingale is deceptively ‘murdered’ by a crafty, clever, wily, manipulating and ugly-looking frog simply because she has dared to threaten its supremacy in Bingle Bog. The poem reeks with political connotation and brings forth how those in the upper hierarchy of power murder those who dare oppose them. Strangle the ploys used against them are so foolproof that they get absolved of any trace of responsibility. The vocabulary in the poem is highly suggestive and musical.

SUMMARY

The poem is about a Frog who lived in Bingle Bog. He thinks that he's the excellent singer and no person can compete with him. He croaks on from morning to night time. The creatures of the bog are ill and tired of his unsightly voice. On one moonlit night, a nightingale arrives on the sumac tree and begins to sing in a melodious voice. the whole bog admires her song. The frog was dumbstruck at the melodious voice of the nightingale. The subsequent night time he introduces himself to the nightingale and tells her that he is a song critic and offers to train her. The innocent nightingale believes the frog. Every night the nightingale would sing and many creatures would come to listen to her song. The cunning frog started taking admission fee from the audience. He was getting huge profits. He was jealous of the nightingale. With each passing day, she grew extra sorrowful. Three was no enthusiasm in her voice. The target audience grew bored of being attentive to her. The frog had suggested her to add trills to her song. The variety of creatures coming to hear her track decreased day by day. as a result, the frog was unable to make money. the nightingale was exhausted. She couldn't sing alone as she was used to getting appreciation from the audience. The frog told her to sing more passionately. She puffed her lungs, burst a vein and died. The frog commented that she was an innocent creature who would believe anybody. The frog again began to sing and his hoarse and unpleasant voice spread through the bog.

Rhyming Scheme:

The poem has been written with a definite structural speciality of Vikram Seth as each line ends at the end of a phrase or a clause. He coins various new words to fit in the perfect rhyme, like ‘dawn’ and ‘on are redone as ‘dawn’ and ‘awn’. Then he uses many onomatopoeic words like crooked, cacophony, baritone, twittered, trills, frills, zipped etc.

The rhyming scheme of the poem is: aa, bb, cc, dd